Challenges remain despite substantial success in education

FE Report
Bangladesh should ensure accountability and citizens' participation to ensure quality education as the country is in a critical juncture in the context of sustainable development goal 4 on education, experts and civil society leaders told a programme Saturday.
Despite substantial success in education, they said, still significant challenges remain in ensuring better learning outcomes. They also said education has to be considered human right and public good which has to be ensured by the state.
There is widespread mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency in education sector. If the quality of recruitment cannot be ensured, the quality of education will not be there, they noted.
The observations came at the dialogue on 'Accountability for SDG-4 (Quality Education) and Citizen Participation' at Brac Centre Inn in the city. Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) jointly organised the programme, marking Global Action Week for Education 2017.
Primary and mass education minister Mostafizur Rahman was present as the chief guest while Shamsul Alam, member of General Economics Division of the Planning Commission, as the special guest.
Institute of inclusive finance and development (InM) executive director Mustafa K Mujeri presented the keynote paper. Convener of citizens platform for SDGs, Bangladesh Debapriya Bhattacharya chaired the event.
Mr Mujeri said for making SDG 4 a reality, Bangladesh needs to resolve several dilemmas like policy development, policy ownership, building consensus and their effective implementation. The accountability will be ensured if there's involvement, collaboration and joint ownership between the government and education civil society for implementing SDG4 in Bangladesh.
Citizens should not be passive recipients of information but be enabled to ask questions, pass judgements, apply outcomes and engage in agenda-setting to ensure effectiveness and responsiveness of SDG4 to citizens.
He pointed out notable underperformance of education including inadequate access and availability, inequity in distribution of educational opportunities, poor quality of learning and limited quality assurance system, rising cost, weaknesses in education administration system, low education budget and inadequate responsiveness to local needs.
Mr Mujeri suggested objectives, assessment, instructions, resources and rewards or sanctions to make the accountability system functional.
Manusher Jonno Foundation executive director Shaheen Anam said some social accountability mechanisms are being used in various public institutions outcome of which is quite impressive. But it doesn't sustain if there's no accountability at the overall education system.
She demanded definition of quality education and accountability of recent changes in textbooks.
Secondary and higher secondary secretary Mohiuddin Khan said there should not be any confusion on the definition of quality education. The allocation for education is very low and it cannot increase if the tax GDP ratio remains low. Investment in every sector should be increased to achieve the SDG goals as well as paying attention to the quality of investment.
Debapriya Bhattacharya said there is partial accountability framework in Bangladesh. It has to be ensured how to ensure accountability through its use. Citizens' participation doesn't necessarily mean accountability, he added.
He said there is politically instigated production of meritorious students which is not a good sign.
Shamsul Alam said east Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan have developed by giving importance to quality and technical education, which is 85 per cent. But Bangladesh has the technical education rate at 15 per cent.
He criticised that there is question mark regarding recruitment which is a barrier to quality education. He suggested recruitment without recommendation for ensuring accountability.
He said the government has appointed 126,000 primary schoolteachers, but 50,000 posts still remain vacant. Many more should be recruited ensuring appointment of 50 per cent female teachers.
The most disastrous situation is prevailing in the secondary education sector and the MPO system has ruined the schools, he observed.
Mustafizur Rahman said there is definition of quality of education but people are confused. Most of the people in the world resort to religion. Whenever the politicians fail, people resort to religion.
People have been raising questions about the eligibility of bureaucrats but what will be the situation of the country where there will not be any recommendation, the minister said.
Regarding the quality, people now compare Bangladeshi students with that of India, the US and Europe.
CAMPE executive director Rasheda K Chowdhury said the government has given responsibility to 12 experts to oversee three specific issues like information, spelling mistakes and overload by theory and information in textbooks of class IX. It's not any committee.
But the books must be checked before going for printing as many ghosts intrude during printing, she added.
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